A Test of Patience: A 17-Hour Recovery on the 60 Freeway

By George L. Nitti In the early morning darkness along Southern California’s 60 Freeway, a fully loaded 53-foot tractor-trailer lay crumpled down an embankment - its cargo loose, its structure failing, and its driver the victim of a hit-and-run involving a reportedly stolen vehicle.

“We got the call around one or two in the morning,” recalled Ruben Gonzalez, who led the operation alongside his father, also named Ruben, with brother Michael first on scene. “It was already over the side, fully loaded, but we knew we didn’t want to unload it down there.” 

Instead, the team committed to recovering the trailer intact. 

Deploying two rotators and two wreckers—a 35-ton Miller 7035 and a 50-ton Century—they began a careful, coordinated lift. The rotators worked in tandem, “one holding while the other repositioned,” Gonzalez explained. “We probably reset four or five times.” Meanwhile, the wreckers winched from above, stabilizing the rear as the trailer crept upward. 

The situation was complicated by rain and poor footing. “We couldn’t really spike on the highway,” Gonzalez said. “The wreckers were sliding back as we were winching. We just kept pulling little by little.” 

Inside the trailer, the cargo posed another challenge. “It wasn’t palletized—just loose boxes,” he said. “The walls were already compromised. Keeping everything from spilling out was the hardest part.” 

By the time the trailer reached the top, it had buckled under stress. Six large liquid-filled totes—some of the heaviest cargo—had to be removed through the torn roof using a rotator. “We had to lift them straight out,” Gonzalez noted. “There was no other way.” 

Rigging required constant adjustment. Gonzalez added multiple hard lines and even quadrupled the winch lines to distribute force and protect the trailer’s weakened frame. “We ran lines to both the tractor and trailer to get more coverage underneath,” he said. 

After nearly 17 hours in the rain, inching the load up the embankment while their own trucks fought for traction on the wet freeway, the recovery finally came together. Every reset, every adjustment, every pull was calculated to keep the trailer intact and the scene under control. 

“We just kept pulling it little by little until it came up,” Gonzalez said. 

Once upright, the team offloaded the remaining cargo, separated a torn axle for transport, and hauled the damaged tractor and buckled trailer in stages.  

By the time the last of the cargo was cleared and the damaged equipment hauled away, the job stood as a reminder of the patience required to see things through to the end.